


The Warrior's Heart

by smolwarden



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Strong Capable Ladies, brief mention of past brosca/leliana, discovering feelings, first confessions, ish, not because they're gay, slightly non-traditional relationship, women saving the day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-27 22:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20768060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolwarden/pseuds/smolwarden
Summary: Warden-Commander Brosca learns just how deep her feelings run for her roguish companion. Rated T for depictions of violence and injury





	The Warrior's Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Settiai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/gifts).

> My entry for the 2019 Black Emporium rare pair exchange. I had so much fun writing one of my guilty pleasure ships. I tried to make it cute but with my usual angst. Enjoy!

Rain fell hard and heavy around the mismatched group, turning the blood soaked ground under their feet into thick mud. The dark clouds blocked out the mid-day sun and the rain dampened their senses. It was almost impossible for the group to hear or see anything farther than a few inches in front of them. If she squinted Brosca could make out her companions fighting at the edge of her vision. Darkspawn came at them in an endless horde, as the Warden cut one down it seemed two appeared in its place.

Brosca’s hands flexed as she tightened her grip on her large sword in preparation for another attack. She lifted it and brought her blade crashing down on the darkspawn in front of her. She swung her blade in a wide arc in front of her and cut down two more approaching darkspawn. Rain and blood stung her eyes as she struck down another attacking darkspawn. How many more were there?

A large darkspawn Alpha charged at her from her unguarded side, knocking her off her feet. She was sent flying before landing on her back with a loud thud. Her sword was tossed to her right and she could see the hilt shining through the mud just out of her reach. As she reached for it the creature pounced on her its teeth gnashing at her face. She struggled under the weight of the darkspawn, her short legs unable to find hold in the slick ground.

The Alpha had her pinned by her shoulders, pushing her farther into the mud. It pressed on her joints in an attempt to crush them under her plate armor. She felt one of her shoulders crack under the pressure and she cried out in pain.

“Commander!” Sigrun shouted when she noticed the Warden trapped under the enormous brute.

Sigrun thrust her twin blades into the chest of the last darkspawn that was surrounding her. She let out a roar and charged to aid her Commander.

“Sigrun, no!” The Warden shouted as she helplessly watched her friend run headfirst towards the darkspawn.

“Hey ugly,” Sigrun taunted the darkspawn as she approached.

The darkspawn raised its head and snarled at the other dwarf. Its eyes glanced between the two dwarves before deciding the rogue did not pose any significant threat and returning its attention to the Warden-Commander. Brosca let out another yell as the darkspawn’s claws pierced into her armor. Upon seeing the darkspawn wasn’t planning on leaving the Commander until she was dead Sigrun launched one of her blades at the creature.

“Come fight me you nasty little nug-snuggler,” a wicked grin spread across her face as she spoke.

Enraged, the Alpha leapt off Brosca and lurched towards the rogue. Free of the overwhelming weight Brosca rolled over and tried to push herself up. Her head spun with pain and bright dots clouded her vision when she tried to move her left arm, let alone put weight on it. She remained on her knees and looked around the battlefield for something to help her to her feet.

The rain was subsiding as rapidly as it had come giving Brosca a clear view of the field. Justice and Anders fought back to back as they cleared out the last remaining few darkspawn. Sigrun, having used one of her blades as a projectile, pointed one small sword at the hunched creature. The darkspawn bent down and grabbed her sword with ease yet it didn’t rush her companion.

Sigrun took a cautious step back and the darkspawn would take one large step forward. It matched her step for step, but its long stride had the creature slowly closing the distance between them. _It’s toying with her_, Brosca realized. Her arm dangled motionlessly under her, pain pulsed through her shoulder with every heartbeat yet she gritted her teeth and forced herself up.

Brosca swayed on her feet and she had to fight to remain standing. She watched as the darkspawn raised her sword preparing to attack. It was getting bored with its games and would cut Sigrun down with ease should the blow connect. Brosca then noticed what Sigrun was doing; she was trying to lead the Alpha to their other companions but the Warden-Commander realized she wouldn’t make it to them in time. She had to do something to help Sigrun but she was without a weapon and it was clear her shoulder was dislocated.

As she staggered towards her companions her mind raced with impractical plan after impractical plan. Her eyes darted back and forth between Sigrun and the darkspawn, and Justice and Anders. There was a solution there she just wasn’t seeing. Brosca watched as the muscles in the darkspawn’s legs tensed in preparation to charge. She was running out of time.

With a growl Brosca gathered the last bit of her strength and launched herself across the battlefield. She looked up and her eyes locked with Anders’. _Anders, that’s it! _Why hadn’t she thought of it sooner?

“ANDERS!” Brosca shouted. “FREEZE IT! _NOW_!”

Anders began summoning the frost magic without hesitation. He twirled his staff and raised it above his head as the collected magic began circling around him. Anders slammed the end of the staff into the ground and a burst of icy wind shot out towards the darkspawn. The spell struck the creature but it failed to freeze it in place. The only thing the spelled succeeded at it seemed, was pissing the darkspawn off.

The darkspawn started running towards her companions, sword held high. Justice glowed as he pulled energy from the Fade and charged the Alpha. Brosca had witnessed the power Justice could harness from the Fade, but even with assistance from other spirits he would not be fast or strong enough to stop the creature before it reached Sigrun. Anders was gathering magic for another attempt to freeze the beast but it wasn’t guaranteed to work any better the second time. There was only one thing she knew would work to save her companions.

“Ancestors watch over me,” Brosca whispered as she pushed her legs as fast as they could carry her.

She dashed between Sigrun and the darkspawn mere seconds before it brought her sword down. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she slid to a stop in the slick mud and pushed her fellow dwarf out of the way. She watched Sigrun’s eyes widen in shock as she was sent crashing to the ground and Brosca whispered her apologies. Brosca braced herself as she felt the pressure on her back from her own sword pierce her armor.

A bolt of white frost shot past her head and struck the darkspawn front and center. By the graces of the Ancestors the spell stuck and the creature was frozen in place. The spell came a second too late and by the time the creature stopped moving her sword was plunged into her back. Brosca wailed and collapsed to her knees, her sword frozen in the creature’s grasp slid from her body with a sickly wet sound.

Sigrun scrambled forward to support her before she fell back into the mud. The two were showered with ice as Justice plunged his blade into the frozen creature, shattering it. Sigrun draped her arms around her and Brosca could feel her fellow dwarf’s shoulders shake as she quietly cried into her Commander’s neck. Brosca squeaked in pain when Sigrun put weight on her injured shoulder but wrapped her good arm around her companion when she tried to pull away.

“You…you…” Sigrun stammered in her ear. Sigrun then pulled back and Brosca saw the fire in her eyes. “You stonecursed Duster! What in the name of the Ancestors were you thinking?! I had it all under control! Do you want to die?! You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“But I didn’t,” Brosca quipped with a grin. She brought her hand up and stroked Sigrun’s cheek. “I’m okay. You oughta know Dusters are made from sturdier stock. And I’m a Paragon now, imagine how embarrassing it would be if I died.

The two dwarves laughed and Brosca wiped the last couple of tears from Sigrun’s face. Brosca managed to stand with the rogue’s help and leaned on her for support. She was exhausted from the fight and the pain radiating out from her shoulder made it difficult for her to remain upright. Anders came jogging over, his face twisted with worry.

“We need to get you to the Keep right away so I can look at you,” he said. “Your shoulder—“

“Is dislocated. And judging by the blood I can feel creping down my arm there’s a pretty bad gash back there too.”

“Thankfully we’re not too far. But this should help until I can properly examine you.”

Anders reached out and placed his hands over her shoulder. A faint glow emanated from them and Brosca could feel the pain in her shoulder subside. Her skin tingled with the unfamiliar touch of magic as her wound closed under his fingers. Brosca voiced her thanks and at her command she and her companions finished their trek to the Keep.

* * *

The sun was just beginning to creep below the horizon when the Wardens made it back to Vigil’s Keep. Brosca fended off questions and voices of concern from the rest of her companions with promises to tell them all about the ambush come morning. The spell that Anders had cast wasn’t a permeant fix and her pain was beginning to return. Anders tried to usher her into his disorganized infirmary but she was adamant on being treated in her quarters. Sigrun escorted the Warden-Commander to her quarters while Anders stopped by the infirmary to gather supplies.

The two dwarves made their way through the Keep in silence. Brosca was typically unnerved by the silence, having been raised in the chaotic mess that was Dust Town. However, when she was with Sigrun she found she didn’t mind it. There was enough of a connection between them where words weren’t always necessary. She was comforted simply by her presence.

Once they were in Brosca’s quarters Sigrun helped her out of her armor. She was gentle with Brosca, carefully unstrapping each piece of plate as to jostle her as little as possible. It was a painstakingly slow process and they had managed to remove about half of the pieces when Anders walked in. His arms were overflowing with different pots, potions, and wrappings.

“Starting without me I see,” he joked. “I see you opted for removing the pants first. Nice choice.”

“What can I say?” Brosca shrugged with her one good shoulder. “We know what we want.”

“I think I read about this in a book once,” Sigrun chuckled as she removed another piece of Brosca’s leg armor.

“Could it have been the same one with the Antivan milk sandwich?” The two dwarves shared a laugh and Anders blinked in confusion. “Trust me, Anders, you _don’t _want to know.”

With a shrug Anders set his supplies down on one of the nearby tables and approached the two dwarves. He reached out to assist Sigrun with removing the Warden-Commander’s armor but stopped out of consideration. Brosca nodded her consent to him and he and Sigrun worked in tandem to remove the rest of her armor until only her chest piece remained. With delicate fingers he unstrapped her chest piece, Sigrun caught the breastplate as it fell and set it down with the other pieces. Anders peeled the back piece off her shoulder and she hissed in pain.

Free of armor, Brosca stood in the center of her quarters in her linens. She could feel where her shirt was plastered to her from a mix of blood and sweat. The throbbing pain in her arm had returned and even without looking at it she could feel how wrong it was now that it was no longer secured by her plate. Anders moved to stand in front of her and pulled a knife from his robes.

“What the nug, Anders?!”

“I need to cut you out of your shirt. Your shoulder doesn’t look too friendly so it’s not coming off any other way.”

Brosca opened her mouth to protest but shut it with a sigh. She knew he was right, she couldn’t even breathe without the movement of her chest causing her pain. In the short time she had known Anders he hadn’t given her any reason to mistrust him, in fact he had been tending to all of her wounds since becoming a Warden. She locked eyes with him and nodded.

Anders grabbed the hem of her shirt with and in one swift motion sliced an opening up the length of it. Having been her personal healer over the past few months, Anders had seen her in various stages of undress but she still appreciated that he did not ogle her or make her uncomfortable. With feather light touches he pushed her shirt over her shoulders and down her arms, moving her injured arm when necessary.

Sigrun stood next to the table that housed Ander’s armful of supplies. She picked up each item and set it down, inspecting it for only the Ancestors knew what. She was trying, and failing, to hide her worry. Brosca caught her eye and gave her roguish companion a warm smile. Sigrun returned her smile but it wavered when she caught a glimpse of Brosca’s shoulder.

Brosca looked down at her bare shoulder. Instead of the usual soft slope her shoulder was a rigid square and was visibly swollen. She could see the dislocated joint bulge under her skin which had turned into a dark, splotchy purple. There were two small puncture wounds from where the darkspawn’s claws had breached her armor. If what she could see was this bad Brosca didn’t even want to hear about her back.

Sigrun approached Brosca and placed a gentle hand on her chest. Brosca took her hand in her good one and met Sigrun’s gaze. “I barely even feel it,” she lied.

“We need to set this immediately before it causes any permanent damage,” Anders declared. He had a thick strap of leather in his hands. How did his Warden robes have this many pockets?

Sigrun took two large steps away from Brosca and suspiciously eyed the leather Anders had handed to Brosca. “Uhh, what’s that for? Can’t you do your magic thing and fix her? I don’t understand why you need so many odd things.”

“Magic is a powerful tool but it cannot do everything,” he explained. “I’ll have to set the shoulder before I can clean out the wounds. Then I can heal the rest with magic. This,” he shook the strap towards Brosca for emphasis, “is to help stop you from biting your tongue clean off. I take no pleasure in this but it will hurt. A lot.”

Brosca shook her head and leveled her gaze with Anders’ and she could see the genuine concern in his eyes. “I killed an Archdemon and have actually died—briefly. Pretty certain I can handle a shoulder.”

Knowing there was no point in arguing with her Anders put the leather down and approached Brosca once again. He cradled her shoulder in one hand and her elbow in the other. Sigrun stood off to the side, her eyes glancing at her then away again. Anders leaned down and spoke softly in her ear.

“I’m going to count backwards from three. On one I need you to exhale,” he instructed. “I’ll push your joint back in then.”

Brosca gulped down her rising nerves and nodded. She braced herself as Anders began his countdown. _Three. Two. One. _Brosca exhaled as instructed and Anders shoved her shoulder up and over her head. It slid into place with an audible _CRACK _and Brosca unintentionally let out a loud shriek. Sigrun rushed over and tried to shove Anders away from her.

“By the Stone, Anders stop it! Can’t you see you’re hurting her?!”

“I warned her it would hurt,” Anders said unbothered as he massaged Brosca’s shoulder. “Hard part’s over now.”

“Why don’t you go get cleaned up?” Brosca suggested to Sigrun. “I bet a warm bath will help you feel better. Anders will watch over me while you’re gone. Won’t you?”

“By my honor as a Warden I do solemnly swear to keep you safe,” the mage grinned.

Sigrun begrudgingly agreed and grumbled under her breath the entire way out of Brosca’s quarters. She felt guilty for sending her away but she knew this was harder on Sigrun. She didn’t have to ask to know Sigrun blamed herself for her injuries. She and Anders watched as the rogue left and waited until they could no longer hear her receding footsteps before continuing.

“You’ve got about half an hour before she’s back,” her voice sounded stern but a small smile tugged at her lips. “I recommend you work fast.”

Anders chuckled and pulled a chair up to the table where he had laid his supplies. He motioned her to it with his head as he started sorting through his supplies. Based off the large variety in what he brought Brosca assumed he had simply shoveled what was on the nearest table in the infirmary. She straddled the chair with her back facing Anders, her good arm draped over it lazily.

“I can’t help but notice that you and our cute little dwarven friend seem awfully close,” Anders said as he started working on cleaning out her back wound.

“Ancestors have mercy, Anders, you too?” Brosca sighed. “Despite what some of the others might suggest our relationship isn’t sexual. Not that I need to explain myself to you.”

“Oh so you two _are_ in a relationship.” Brosca could feel his sly foxlike smile. She had fallen right into his trap. “By ‘others’ I know you mean Oghren, but are you really telling me you haven’t slept together? Not even once?”

A blush crept up the Warden-Commander’s tanned skin. “This conversation is over now,” she muttered.

“Ohhohoho, Commander, you minx.”

Anders had worked swiftly and Brosca had hardly felt a thing the entire time he had been cleaning her wounds. Now she could feel the familiar tingle of his magic settling over her skin, healing her wound from the inside out. Her shoulder still had a dull throb, but it was nothing compared to the intense pain she had for most of the day. The two chatted idly while Anders finished his work.

She managed to shampoo her hair, bathe, and get into a fresh set of linens unassisted. Anders had tried to completely heal her shoulder and had exhausted his mana in doing so. Whenever she was seriously injured it always took multiple healers to restore her to peak condition, which she assumed was due to her natural resistance to magic. Anders had encouraged her to sleep in a sling to make sure her shoulder didn’t slip out of socket again.

“I didn’t mean to touch on a nerve earlier,” Anders apologized as he stacked yet another pillow behind her. “If it helps any, I think the two of you are cute together whatever the nature of your relationship.”

“I just,” Brosca started. “It’s different with her. I cared for Leliana but it was just sex. Both of us can agree that we were lonely and terrified of our realistic chances at demise. But I feel differently with Sigrun. She may share my tent every night but we’ve only had sex twice.”

“You love her.”

That simple sentence had her heart racing. How had she not realized it sooner? Brosca opened her mouth to ask Anders for advice but Sigrun came bursting in at that exact moment. For the first time since they met Brosca couldn’t meet Sigrun’s gaze. She and Sigrun had always been able to tell what the other was thinking and she didn’t know if she was ready for her to know the true extent of her feelings.

Anders and Sigrun chatted but Brosca couldn’t hear anything over the thundering of her heart in her ears. Should she tell her? What if she didn’t feel the same way? Would it be better if she said nothing? She felt the bed shift next to her and she turned to face Sigrun.

Brosca opened her mouth but any words she had were swallowed up when she saw Sigrun’s large blue eyes staring at her. It was like she was truly able to see her for the first time. Was she always this beautiful? She reached up and cupped Sigrun’s face in her hands and stroked her cheek. Sigrun leaned into her touch and kissed the palm of her hand.

“You really scared me back there, you know,” Sigrun curled up next to the Warden-Commander. She pulled Brosca’s arm around her shoulders and idly played with her fingers.

“I’m sorry,” Brosca’s voice cracked.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Sigrun looked up at her, bright eyes wide with worry.

She pulled Sigrun into her and bent her head down to kiss her companion. Sigrun parted her lips and flicked her tongue across Brosca’s lips. Brosca tangled her fingers in Sigrun’s hair, deepening their kiss. Sigrun slid one arm around Brosca’s waist pulling herself closer to her lover.

Brosca pulled away eliciting a sigh from Sigrun. Brosca had to tell her, she couldn’t keep her feelings a secret. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them to deny her truth any longer. She took Sigrun’s other hand and placed it on her chest.

“You are my heart, Sigrun. When I think about you actually leaving for your death I feel like I’m suffocating. Please stay with me, here, as a Warden. I can’t lose you,” she took a deep shuddering breath. “I love you.”

Sigrun leaned forward and placed gentle kisses on Brosca’s lips and face. She gave her hand a light squeeze before resting her forehead on Brosca’s.

“What took you so long?” Sigrun laughed. “I love you too.”


End file.
